


Sworn to the Sea

by Averie Avalon (myrainbowshoelaces)



Category: Aeridas, Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Original Work
Genre: D&D, F/F, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Piracy, Pirates, Polyamory, Romance Novel, Specific content warnings by chapter, Transgender Characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:29:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23824609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrainbowshoelaces/pseuds/Averie%20Avalon
Summary: ((Welcome to the Arcadya Chronicles, a romance novel series set in the universe of my Dungeons and Dragons game, Shards of Aeridas. The players are reading Sworn to the Sea by Averie Avalon as part of a book club endeavor and they'll be getting new chapters every two weeks before our sessions.))As Kaylan Arcadya climbs aboard the ship Prosperity's Freedom and becomes acquainted with the tempestuous and severe Captain Arabelle Wehlas, she finds herself drawn into the wild and dangerous world of the pirates sworn to uphold freedom at any cost. Kaylan will discover more than her own thirst for adventure as she gets closer to the captain of the Prosperity's Freedom, who she feels inexplicably drawn to despite all the instincts of her noble upbringing.But her journey brings her face to face with her childhood friend, now Captain of a rival ship, and between a decades long rivalry, friendship, falling out, and reforging of a complex interweaved relationship with the high seas and the lust for adventure. Can Kaylan persuade the two captains to deal with their pasts? Can she resist her own urges? Will she ever be the same after she leaves land behind and discovers the open ocean?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Sworn to the Sea

Night fell on the city of Nu’Talar like a thick blanket in the midsummer heat. The haze of the season interspersed with cicada hums hung soft over lanterns, all flicker-flamed and fuzzy, and the streets, slowly filling with denizens of the city, became crowded with noise. People of all walks of life, dragons and elves and dwarves and humans all washed into the streets, eager and chattering as they all moved towards the coastline and looked up expectantly as they counted down minutes. Faces sparkled with awe as the sun finally made its final rays unseen and the sky blossomed with the multicolored blooms of celebratory fireworks. 

Kaylan Arcadya, youngest daughter of Nu’Talarian nobleman Ethalar Arcadya, watched the fireworks from her tower room and gazed thoughtfully down at the revelers. She sat perched on her windowsill, leaning out to witness the festivities below, her casual green nightgown hanging off her shoulders and her sandy blonde hair gathered in a messy bun on top of her head. Her serious brown eyes matched her skin, which was sprinkled with freckles, and her pointed ears glittered with yet-to-be-removed strings of silver jewelled earrings. She regarded the scene below and let out a long sigh as she rested her chin in her hands. The city below her felt so full and alive, and her bedroom behind her felt like it was stuffy and stagnant. 

Nu’Talar had been Kaylan’s home her entire life, and tonight, just days after her hundredth birthday and her naming ceremony, she’d never felt more like a stranger to everything around her. How long had she seen the city from the sky? How many nights had she wondered what life was like down on the streets? Unsafe, or so her father claimed, but she had never had a sensible conversation about him where he gave a reason beyond paranoia over the safety of his baby girl and only daughter. 

She stared out across the familiar rooftops below, their dimensions and colors burned into her brain after years of watching and waiting, feeling like a held breath lingering in the back of someone’s throat. How could a city so full of life always have the same monotonous view?

There was a soft knock at the door behind her and Kaylan turned to see the door creak open, her mother peering around the corner of it, her shadow cast across the ground highlighting her pointed ears and her long hair. She smiled, the corners of her mouth wrinkling. “You should be in bed, Kaylan,” she said gently in elvish. 

Kaylan sighs. “I was just watching the fireworks,” she says. “The view from up here is beautiful you know.”

“I wish I understood how you could stand to be looking down on the world so often,” her mother said, shaking her head as she shuffled into the room and came over to rest a hand on Kaylan’s shoulder. “Makes me nauseous looking down from up this high.” 

“It’s not that bad,” Kaylan said, giving her mother an exasperated look as she turned away to face her. “I like it.”

“Well, suit yourself,” her mother leaned down to give her a kiss on the top of the head. “We have to go with your father to the bank tomorrow for this meeting, remember? You need your rest.” 

“I don’t see why I have to come with you,” Kaylan complained as she rested her arms on the balcony’s edge. “It has nothing to do with me.”

“You’re an adult now and you need to at least know a little bit about your finances, my dear,” her mother replied. “And your father’s review of his tax forms is the perfect time to give you a crash course in investment!” 

She sighed heavily and rested her head on her arms. “Fine,” she says. “I’ll go to bed when the fireworks are over.” 

“Fair enough,” her mother said, turning away and heading for the door. “I’ll see you in the morning, Kaylan dear.” 

“Night,” Kaylan called over her shoulder as she propped her head up again to go back to staring out at the Nu’Talar night and the flash and bang of the fireworks. 

Something caught her eye on one of the nearby rooftops. It wouldn’t have been anything of any consequence to the casual observer but for Kaylan, who knew the sight of the rooftops like the back of her hand, couldn’t miss the brief flash of movement where normally she saw nothing but chimneys and slate. She squinted down, leaning out the window slightly to try and find the source of the movement. Her instinct was to write it off as a pigeon fluttering across the Hive towards the roost atop one of the nearby houses, but something told her it was more than a simple bird. As she watched, her patience rewarded her and she saw a tall figure making their way across the rooftops towards one of the grand noble houses of the Hive. They were difficult to distinguish but she could tell even from this distance that they were Toldoskan drow and dressed in black to move more easily through the gathering dusk. Their hair was what caught Kaylan’s eye most easily, white and practically glimmering in the dark in stark contrast, like a star shimmering in a night sky. 

Kaylan sat up a little straighter and turned briefly to reach for her binoculars, ever present next to her window, but by the time she turned back to get a better look at the mysterious shadowy person, they were gone. She sighed with disappointment and scanned the rest of the rooftops for other irregularities that would otherwise go unnoticed and she saw the flutter of curtains and the flicker of candlelight at a window across from one of the lower levels of the Arcadya estate. Narrowing her gaze and fine-tuning the focus of the binoculars, she could see two shadows moving beyond the curtains. She could have sworn that window hadn’t been open a moment ago. 

She didn’t know why, perhaps because of the sudden disruption of tedium and monotony, but she needed more than anything to know why this person was sneaking around on the rooftops and whose window they’d just climbed through. 

Stepping back from the window and letting the binoculars hang against her nightgown, Kaylan grabbed her thin silk robe from the poster of her bed and shuffled into her house slippers, grabbing a book on nocturnal birds off her side table lest anyone stop her in the hallway to question her presence in a room in the house that she had no reason to be in. She wasn’t certain, but she suspected the offending window was across from her mother’s old music room, which was mostly now used for the storage of old instruments and other bardic paraphernalia. 

Kaylan stepped out into the hallway, wincing at the creak of her closing bedroom door and checking up and down the narrow stone corridor for any of the staff who might be up at the top of the tower at this time of night. It all seemed deserted at first, second, and third glance, so she began to creep down the hallway, trying to let her slippered feet fall softly on the flagstone. She’d have to go down to the bottom of the tower and cross through the back of the great hall before going back up to the fifth floor, but if she hurried and stayed quiet nobody would even notice her being out and about this late. 

Passing by the familiar ornate tapestries depicting the gold and blue of the city skyline, Kaylan paused at the top of the stairs to listen for voices and movement. She heard nothing, breathed a soft sigh of relief, and began her descent along the narrow spiraling staircase that curved around the central tower chandelier. Currently hanging dark from the ornately decorated ceiling, Kaylan hugged the wall as she padded down the stairs, brushing her fingers against the aging canvas of massive paintings and the threadbare edges of old tapestries. One hundred years of habit meant she could have told by touch what level of the tower she was on, and her fingers slid across the textures with practiced movements. By the time she reached the bottom, the dormant chandelier still glittering with reflected moonlight through the skylights, she was quite convinced no one else in the house was there. Awake, probably, but not present, likely in their own rooms watching the fireworks and enjoying the midsummer festivities. 

Kaylan stepped cautiously into the great hall, trying to stay low behind the backs of the tall ornate chairs. Even with her certainty that the massive room was deserted, she figured it was better to be safe than sorry. She reached the end of the high table and paused a spell to breathe and plan her route up the stairs on the other side of the house. The Arcadya estate, though sprawling, was architecturally simple, and she had the benefit of growing up within its walls to guide her along the most efficient path. 

Ascending the narrow staircase that criss-crossed up into the depths of the house, Kaylan hoped she wouldn’t be too late. She couldn’t explain why she felt so determined to locate the stranger atop the nearby roofs of the city, and would probably rationalize it to anyone catching her as a concern for the safety of the neighbors. Of course that’s all it was, a fear for the wellbeing of other citizens, not a sudden spike of activity in an exceedingly dull life. No, not at all. 

Pausing for breath at the fifth floor landing, Kaylan tucked her book under her arm and made her way down the hall toward the old music room. The door, closed but not locked, groaned from lack of use and Kaylan had to give a paranoid glance over her shoulder to ensure she was alone before she slipped inside. The music room was dark and still, a row of slightly open windows along the far wall layered with dust and flanked by old lace curtains. The piano in the center of the room was covered in a sheet, casting a strange misshapen shadow along the floor from the lights shining through the window. 

Approaching the window with caution, Kaylan crept across the room to peer out and across the street at the open window she suspected the mysterious rooftop stranger had climbed in through. The window to the furthest right was almost completely open, giving her a spot to gingerly sidle up to and rest her binoculars on the windowsill to see if she could catch sight of the occupants of the room across the street. Dropping down to the floor and partially crawling up to the windowsill, Kaylan grabbed her binoculars and set them on the sill, gently adjusting herself to the right level to squint through them. 

The binoculars took a moment to adjust and once Kaylan realized what she was seeing she almost fell backwards moving back down to hide, her cheeks burning. She was _quite_ sure that the two occupants of the room across from her would not want anyone to witness what they were doing. It took her at least a full minute before her heart slowed and her face became less warm, and she was hit with the realization that this must have been the reason the stranger had snuck into her neighbor’s room. 

How scandalous. A noblewoman with a late night gentleman caller sneaking in through the upstairs window. Kaylan knew that she shouldn’t take another look out the window, she had her answers regarding the stranger’s intent, but she just couldn’t help herself. Maybe if she waited a few more minutes, until they were finished. Maybe she could catch the stranger climbing out of the window and sneaking back out into the night. Not that she had any good measure of how long it would actually be. Her few experiences with intimacy had been fleeting and a decided disappointment with the noblemen of Nu’Talar, but she had read enough books to know that her experiences were not typical, at least not as far as the authors of those novels had described. Perhaps if she was careful, very careful, she could catch sight of the stranger, this mysterious gentleman involved with a noble lady of Nu’Talar.

Hiding down below the windowsill in a crouch, Kaylan waited and listened intently for the telltale signs of opening windows and footsteps on slate tiles. The loudest of the midsummer festivities now at their end, she felt certain she’d be able to catch wind of any movement. She needed to know who it was who crept along the rooftops of Nu’Talar with such scandalous intent. It was the most interesting thing that had happened in the proximity of the Arcadya estate since the last time one of the Arkenaths failed to properly secure a manticore on the other side of the Hive.

Kaylan’s patience rewarded her, and after a good twenty minutes of waiting and listening she heard the telltale creak of opening windows, the click of a bootheel on slate. She smiled. Finally, time to get a look at the mysterious gentleman caller. 

Slowly adjsting from her hiding spot, Kaylan shifted into a crouch and peered up over the edge of the windowsill to get a look at the stranger, who was on their way out of the window, one leg over the sill and the other still inside. Kaylan’s breath caught in her throat as she got her first good look at the tall elf making ready to exit a noblewoman’s bedroom.

Ah. Not a _ gentleman _ caller then. Well. 

The woman sitting on the windowsill and blowing cheeky kisses back inside was tall, statuesque even, with dark skin and a crop of shock white hair sitting in teased curls on top of her head. Her pointed ears were surrounded with intricate tattoos that almost glowed in the moonlight and traced from the shaved sides of her head down past her shoulders and into the hastily donned jacket and blouse she wore about her shoulders. Every other item about her person, from the high cuffed boots to the sheathed sword at her waist, told Kaylan everything she needed to know about this woman. 

She was a pirate. 

So enraptured and curious had Kaylan become that she didn’t realize how far up she had peeked over the windowsill, and as she stared, the pirate woman seemed to take notice of her, locking eyes with her across the gap of the street and staring back, the smallest of smiles cocked on her mouth. Unable to tear her eyes away despite the sudden grip of fear and embarrassment in her chest, Kaylan caught sight of something dangling from the woman’s neck. What struck her was not just the shape of it, a little tiger’s eye teardrop inlaid in silver. No, it was that she had seen it before, decades ago, around the neck of someone else entirely. 

_ Elena.  _

__

The pirate woman paused a moment, a smile still on her face, and reached into her pocket, pulling out a little gold ring. She raised a hand to her mouth and pressed a finger against her lips, giving Kaylan a little wink and breathing out the softest yet still audible ‘shhhhh’.

__

Then she slipped the ring onto her finger and vanished from view. 

__

Kaylan gasped, almost falling back into the music room, and she ducked down again as she saw movement in the room across the street -- no doubt the occupant going to close the window. Clutching her binoculars and feeling her heart race, she tried to comprehend what she had just seen. In just a flash of a second, everything had changed. Her head swam with questions. Who was this mysterious woman? Was she really a pirate? Why was she sneaking into noblewoman’s bedrooms?

__

And most importantly, how did this pirate know Elena? That was Elena’s necklace, no question about it. What was *she* wearing it for? A thought crept unbidden into Kaylan’s mind, one she clung to like a lifeline as she stumbled to her feet and made the quick journey back to her room. It was a thought that changed everything for her, more than even she realized at the time. But it remained within her mind as she slipped back into her room, climbed into bed, chasing sleep that would be long in coming as she turned the thought over and over in her mind, again and again. 

__

Maybe this pirate knew where Elena was. Maybe after all these years, Kaylan could find her again.

__

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the Arcadya Chronicles. New chapters are posted every two weeks!


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